Cooling apparatus.



.S. E. SEAMAN-L COOLING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION man MAY 21. ms.

Patented sew. 18, 1917.

A NW

5513 attozueq through the cooling apparatus.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

STEWART E. SEAMAN, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO SEAMAN WASTE WOOD CHEMICAL COMPANY, INC., 01? NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

COOLING APPARATUS.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Sept, 18; 191'? Application filed May 27, 1916. Serial No. 100,189.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, STEWART E. SEAMAN, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of the borough of Bro klyn, county of Kings, and State of New ork, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Cooling Apparatus, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention relates to improvements in cooling apparatus and especially to cooling apparatus which is adapted to cool hot charcoal or other carbonized material, although obviously the cooling apparatus can be used for cooling any materials capable of passing through it. It is primarily intended, however, to cool dry, granular, or more or less finely divided material, and is also especially adapted to be used in connection with a retort or other source of delivery for such materials hot. Another object of the invention is to provide a connection between the cooling medium proper and the retort or source of supply of the hot material, which will have an automatic gate or gates adapted to collect the material passing through the apparatus and maintain it in a body to form a seal which will prevent the escape of gases from the retort or the like The automatic gate or seal works at intervals to permit the passage of the material through the cooling apparatus, but acts to maintain a constant seal; In this connection-I can use two seals or gates, one following the other,

and thus make the sealing doubly sure.

After the material passes the seals it is carried by conveyers through a casing. containing a cooling medium such as cold water, and is finally delivered sufficiently cool to be safely and conveniently handled.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification, in which similar reference characters indicate corresponding parts in all the views. I

Figure 1 is a broken side elevation of the apparatus with the cooling casing shown in vertical section, and

Fig. 2 is a cross section through the cooling casing showing the arrangement of the tubes and headers therein.

The apparatus is especially adapted for use in connection with a retort 10 in which the material has been treated and from which gases and vapors have been extracted,

and the material under treatment passes from the retort to a pipe 11 in which is'a conveyer 12 which carries the material forward into the gate or valve casing 13, this being preferably provided with a removable top 14 and of such size as to permit a column of charcoal or other material to be maintained above an automatic gate or valve 15. This body of material held above the gate or valve forms a seal which prevents the escape of gases from the retort and through the material which is to be discharged therefrom. The gate 15 is pivoted as shown at 15 and has an arm 16 extending outward therefrom, this being provided with a counterbalance 17 which can be adjusted so as to counterbalance the desired load of material above the valve or gate, and when the material accumulates so as to over balance the weight 17, it will drop down past the gate 15 which will swing back as the load becomes lighter.

The valve or gate casing 13 delivers into a pipe 18 in which is a screw conveyer 19, and

this delivers into a box 20 at the upper part of the cooling apparatus, this box serving as a distributing chamber for delivering the material to the headers and pipes below, as presently described. As illustrated the distributing box 20 connects with a horizontally arranged header 21, and this connects near its ends with a pair of pipes 21 which extend through the cooling casing 25. At the opposite ends the pipes 21 connect with inclined headers 22 which are arranged just outside the casing, and these at their lower ends connect with return pipes 23 which extend through the casing and connect with other inclined headers 22", and these in turn with other return pipes 28*, this arrangement being carried on to the desired extent, that is to get the desired number of pipes, and the lower pipes discharge through spouts 24. Obviously there can be any desired number of these pipes 21", 23, 23 etc.

The box 20 is also preferably provided with a gate valve 26 which hangs 0p osite its inlet, and the valve is pivoted as s own at 27, and the pivot shaft 27 has an arm 28 carrying a weight 29 which normally material causes the latter to be somewhat condensed or compressed, thus forming a second'seal which prevents the escape of gases from the retort. The apparatus works well without the second gate 26, but the latter simply serves as an additional safeguard.

I have shown the pipes 21", 23, 23, etc., provided with screw conveyers 20 for carrying the material through the several pipes, and obviously any suitable form of conveyer can be used. The conveyer shafts 31 can be driven in any desired manner, and I have shown a conventional arrangement of the belt 32 to drive them. The only thing required is to have the conveyers 30 turn in the right direction so as to maintain a constant flow of material through the several pipes.

I have shown the casing 25 provided with a pipe 33 near the top and a pipe 34: near the bottom, through which pipes the flow of cooling medium through the casing 25 can be maintained.

It will be seen that the arrangement is simple and efficient, that the hot material under treatment is kept steadily flowing through the pipes 21, and that the heat from the material will be absorbed by the water or other cooling medium in the casing 25 so that the material when discharged from the spouts 24 at the lower ends of the banks of pipes will be sufficiently cooled. It will also be observed that the valve casing 13 serves as a hopper, and that the automatic valve or gate 15 serves the purpose of not only effecting a seal but causing a relatively even distribution of the material to the cooling apparatus proper.

I claim 1. The combination of a retort, a cooling apparatus and a pipe line connecting the same, having therein a valve, means to hold the valve to its seat, but permitting excessive pressure from the retort side of the valve to open the same, whereby a seal is formed by the material passing through the pipe line, to prevent excessive passage of gases from the retort to the cooling apparatus.

2. A cooling apparatus comprising a pipe line in contact with a cooling medium, a vertically arranged valve casing or hopper connected with the pipe line, means for sup plying material to the said casing or hopper, and an automatic valve arranged in the said casing and opening by the pressure of material behind it.

3. A cooling apparatus comprising a pipe line in contact with a cooling medium, means for forcing material through the pipe line, a track or passage-way arranged to supply material to the pipe line, and a plurality of intermittently operating valves controlling the fiow of material through said passage-way and arranged to maintain columns of material behind them thereby creating seals of said material.

4. In combination a pipe line in contact with a cooling medium, means for forcing material through the pipe line, a retort, a passage-way leading from the retort to the pipe line, and means in the passage-way to check the flow of material thereby accumulating it and causing it to seal the passageway against the escape of gases from the retort.

5. The combination ,with a retort, of a cooling apparatus comprising a pipe line in contact with a cooling medium, a passageway leading from the retort to the pipe line, a vertically arranged casing forming an element of said passage-way, and a swing ing counter-balanced valve in the casing acting to maintain a column of material behind it to effect a seal against the escape of gases from the retort.

STEWART E. SEAMAN.

Witnesses:

REYNOLDS BELLOWS, A. B. JACKSON. 

